One-line PHP random string generator?

I decided this question needs a better answer. Like code golf! This also uses a better random byte generator.

preg_replace("/[\/=+]/", "", base64_encode(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(8)));

Increase the number of bytes for a longer password, obviously.

Rather than shuffling the alphabet string , it is quicker to get a single random char .

Get a single random char from the string and then append the md5( time( ) ) to it . Before appending md5( time( ) ) remove one char from it so as to keep the resulting string length to 32 chars :

substr("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ", mt_rand(0, 51), 1).substr(md5(time()), 1);

Lowercase version :

substr("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", mt_rand(0, 25), 1).substr(md5(time()), 1);

Or even shorter and a tiny bit faster lowercase version :

chr(mt_rand(97, 122)).substr(md5(time()), 1);

/* or */

chr(mt_rand(ord('a'), ord('z'))).substr(md5(time()), 1);

A note to anyone trying to generate many random strings within a second:
Since time( ) returns time in seconds , md5( time( ) ) will be same throughout a given second-of-time due to which if many random strings were generated within a second-of-time, those probably could end up having some duplicates .

I have tested using below code . This tests lower case version :

    $num_of_tests = 100000;

    $correct = $incorrect = 0;

    for( $i = 0; $i < $num_of_tests; $i++ )
    {
        $rand_str = substr( "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" ,mt_rand( 0 ,25 ) ,1 ) .substr( md5( time( ) ) ,1 );

        $first_char_of_rand_str = substr( $rand_str ,0 ,1 );

        if( ord( $first_char_of_rand_str ) < ord( 'a' ) or ord( $first_char_of_rand_str ) > ord( 'z' ) )
        {
            $incorrect++;
            echo $rand_str ,'<br>';
        }
        else
        {
            $correct++;
        }
    }

    echo 'Correct: ' ,$correct ,' . Incorrect: ' ,$incorrect ,' . Total: ' ,( $correct + $incorrect );

If you need it to start with a letter, you could do this. It's messy... but it's one line.

$randomString = substr(str_shuffle("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"), 0, 1) . substr(str_shuffle("0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"), 0, 10);

echo $randomString;

I had found something like this:

$length = 10;
$randomString = substr(str_shuffle(md5(time())),0,$length);
echo $randomString;